Tuesday, 11 December 2012

As translators and
interpreters know, it is very important to bridge the gap between
cultures. In certain disciplines, the meaning and the effect that the text has
on the reader is far more important than the words. This is especially true of
localisation, which has been defined as the “adaptation
of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural
and other requirements of a specific target market” (Ishida & Miller: 2005).

In the specific field of
games localisation, this adaptation goes well beyond the words. As we all know,
different cultures perceive things in different ways so, if a product is to be
successful, it’s important to make sure that it adapts to the target markets,
as the picture below amusingly shows. In fact, at least 50% of the revenue in
games comes from localised versions (Chandler: 2006), which shows why
localisation efforts should not be underestimated.

A while ago, I had the
pleasure of witnessing a very interesting presentation by Melissa
Clark-Reynolds, Founder and CEO of MiniMonos, a company which provides a
virtual world for children in which they can create a monkey avatar, socialise
with other monkeys and play minigames. She spoke of how sometimes they release
minigames adapted to their local markets. One interesting example was a
minigame which involved monkey poo, as can be seen in the following pictures.

This type of minigame would
have never worked in the Australian or New Zealand markets, for instance, where
children are not as obsessed with their digestive system as they are in the UK.
Despite speaking the same language, the cultures in these countries are
different and being able to adapt to British “tastes” (if we can call it that
in this case!) proved an extremely effective strategy, making this one of the
most successful minigames for the company in the UK.

Another company in the world
of online gaming, Zynga, famously decided to enter the Chinese market a couple
of years ago. They rebuilt the game Farmville and, although the Chinese version
is quite similar to the original Farmville, there are some changes that reflect
the preferences of this target market. For instance, some changes were made to
the colour palette and the plots of farmland are larger than in the original
version. And some new crops were also
introduced, as can be seen in the picture below:

These crops, like the
ginseng or the Caterpillar fungus, reflect the kind of crops that would grow in
the region.

All this has huge
implications for the games localiser, who must not only be a master of the
written word, but also become a language consultant, and provide advice to
clients when they come across something that could cause a potential issue in
the target market.

Some time ago, I was working
on a Japanese game for a portable device. The title included a minigame in
which the characters had to compete to finish a big bowl filled with some type
of alcoholic drink. The first one to finish it won the game, and the characters
were depicted quite obviously drunk, and then complaining about having a
headache the morning after. I had been told that the age rating of the game was
3+, so I immediately identified a problem and warned the client that a drinking
minigame was going to be problematic in the target market, especially for such
a young audience. All the translators discussed the problem as a team and we
developed an idea to turn the drink into some sort of sugary potion and change
the text so that the characters got a sugar rush instead, as children often get
when having too many sweets. That saved the client a lot of time and money by
not having to edit the game, and they were very grateful.

Other times, this cultural
dimension can appear in the form of cultural references within the games
themselves. For instance, in World of Warcraft there is a trinket called the Six
Demon Bag, and its description text reads “Blasts enemies with the power of
wind, fire, that kind of thing!”. This is a reference to the movie Big Trouble
in Little China, in which Egg Shen’s describes the contents of his Six Demon
Bag using the same words. In these cases, it’s important for the localiser
firstly to identify the reference, and secondly, to look for the equivalent,
that is, the official version of the movie in the target market (whether it’s
dubbed or subtitled), and use the same wording in order to achieve the same
effect that the original version of the game aims for.

Another important cultural
aspect is related to characterisation. Many games contain fantasy characters
such as orcs, wizards, fairies, but also pirates, gangsters and similar. The
localiser will need to be familiarised with the way those creatures or
characters speak in the target language and follow the conventions. It could be
possible that an equivalent accent might need to be found in the target
language to portray certain stereotypes or, lacking that, the use of certain
interjections, expressions or pet phrases. Rude language and swearing can be
particularly tricky because, whilst the effect on the player has to be
maintained, cultural sensibilities also have to be taken into account. Some
languages and cultures are more accepting of this type of language than others.

Of course, all this doesn’t
mean that the content always has to be adapted. Sometimes aspects of the source
culture have to be kept in order to maintain a certain local flavour. It wouldn’t
make much sense for a game clearly based in New York, where the city is central
to the story, to have characters speaking with a very marked regional French
accent, for instance. However, both localisers and developers need to be aware
of these issues and use their skills and expertise to ensure that the localised
product meets all the requirements and needs of the target market if the
product is to be successful. After all, this is a business, and the better the quality of the localisation, the higher the potential for revenue.

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MediaLoc is a boutique language service provider specialised in creative content such as games, apps and websites. We help you reach more customers and expand your business abroad by producing material which not only sounds natural, but is suitable for the target market and makes your audience feel it was specially created for them.
It is run by Silvia Ferrero, an English into Spanish translator with over 13 years experience and a special interest in creative translations, such as games localisation, marketing and advertising. She is a Member of the ITI, the Chair of the NWTN and a frequent speaker and guest lecturer at conferences and universities.